Melton Sustainable Living Group

We had a great turn out for the Group AGM yesterday at Kim & Gavin's place. A huge vote of thanks was given to them and David for their work over the past few years, along with Stacey and Michael (the 2012/13 committee's ordinary members). Gavin, Kim and their family are taking a break from the group for the next year, but we hope to see them at an activity in the near future. We elected a new committee for 2013/14: Stacey W (president), Jan M (Treasurer), Patrick Mc (Secretary), Jonathan C and Mandie M (ordinary members). The committee have their first meeting next weekend, and will soon be in contact with members to arrange the new calendar of activities. If you have any questions, feel free to email the group or leave us a comment below.

Hi Members and friends,   Based on a survey of members, we have chosen Saturday 27 July at 2pm to hold the AGM for the Melton Sustainable Living Group.   We are delighted that nearly all members are continuing with the group, and that we have nominations for all committee positions in 2013/14 (more nominations are still welcome).   We will be sending the nominations list shortly, along with some other information. If you have any questions, just leave a comment or send us an email.    

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"It doesn't cost the Earth to be green."   The members of Melton Sustainable Living Group believe in changing the world by thinking globally, but by acting locally. The MSLG brings sustainable living to Melton Shire ensuring a cleaner, greener and more resilient community for all. The MSLG meets once a month, every 3 rd Saturday, to exchange ideas, harvests, produce, and discuss sustainable living projects.   The group provides practical knowledge and experience via workshops, about how to lower personal emissions, energy efficiency, growing your own food garden, renewable energy, frugal living, soap making, preserving food, composting, worm-farming, rainwater harvesting and the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle).   In addition to monthly meetings, documentary nights are held on the 1 st Wednesday of each month, to educate members and friends about current environmental issues facing our society.   Membership is $20 per year. Newsletters are sent ...

Yesterday, my friend Jan and I presented a workshop to the Melton Sustainable Living Group members and friends.  The workshop is one of the regular monthly activities the group holds on the 3rd Saturday of each month. I believe that it was informative and I certainly had a good time presenting it.  As requested by one of my readers on The Greening of Gavin , we captured the highlights on video and I placed it on YouTube. I hope you enjoy all the chicken antics and my presentation! Gavin Webber President, MSLG Inc.

On Saturday, the Melton Sustainable Living Group hosted a home brew workshop at my house.  Kim filmed the workshop, and I have edited it into three parts.  I hope you find the time to watch this educational documentary, courtesy of the MSLG.  Part One Part Two Part Three with Q&A session The next day, I checked the Cider to see their progress.  The cider was not bubbling, so I took off the lid to ensure that it was indeed fermenting (which it was), so I screwed the lid back on super tight.  This sealed it correctly this time, and the airlock started working ferociously.  And as for the Cider today, well due to the fact that I only put in 500gm of Dextrose, it looks like it has finished fermenting as well.  I will check it with the hydrometer and possibly bottle it tomorrow night!  I can taste it already.

All I can say is that I believe that our stand at the DJ festival was a success and fun to boot.  Not only did we get the message out into the community that we exist, met many like minded people from other environmental groups in our shire, we made $121 for the group by selling plants grown by Michael, Jan and Gavin, chicken and duck eggs donated by Jan, and T-Shirts and hats for members provided by Kim.  I must say the the Sunflower plants were the biggest seller of the day followed by the salad gardens and the multitude of heirloom tomatoes. It was a great day, and it was good to see that many members and volunteers were able to man the stand throughout the day.  Here are some photos of the event taken early in the morning. Setting up at the start of the day The first shift.  Left to right; Amanda, Amy & David Inside the marquee as you move from left to right; The Gardening Panel.  Green Cleaning and Energy efficiency panels Pou...

Well, what a great day out we had on Saturday!  Only a few members came along, but we had a great time at CERES this weekend. There was Gavin, Michael, David, Kim and Ben and Liam.  Kim was taking the photos.  We spent about 3 hours walking around the Community Environment Park, and it was great fun.  Here are a few photos of our visit. Renewable energy galore! Now that is what I call a bakery.  Ben sampled a croissant and said it was yummy! This is where the Cafe gets most of its food from. Fresh organic fruit.  The labels even had the food miles listed on them. Organic Free Range chickens of the ISA Brown variety.  They had so much land to run around in.  About 2 acres I reckon. The cob oven was pretty cool.  It even had its own herbs growing on top of it.   With wonderful mosaics.  Kim wanted to give it a go.  There were mosaics all over the park and it added a lot of colour to a winters...

This fortnight we have an evening meeting on Thursday, 2nd July, at the Melton Community Hall, meeting room 4, from 7-9pm.  The meeting will start dead on 7.00pm as we have a full programme, so please be a little early.  The hall will be open from 6.30pm onwards.  I have invited the team at ecoMaster to come along and present to us, and they have kindly accepted.  Listed below is what they intend on covering in two presentations; The most effective presentation would be about the Fed. Govt program which starts on 1st July.  Our group will be the first ever group in Australia to be presented with the Home Sustainability Assessments and the Green Loans program. We will cover: LYN: what is a home sustainability assessment and how does that work with a 'green loan' what is the purpose of the green loans scheme potential benefits the 'mechanics' of the scheme  eligibility for the loa...

Don’t forget that our next meeting will be held this Saturday, 23rd May from 1400-1600. For prospective members or interested people, please drop me an email me at the groups email address listed in the sidebar for the address details. We will be focusing on growing your own food. In these troubled times, there is no better time to start your own veggie patch or patio garden, and reap the rewards of the sound investment of your own food security. We will be getting our hands dirty, and everyone will get a small something to take home with them after the workshop. I am looking forward to the afternoon. Also, members please remember to send all apologies to David by Thursday. Kind regards, Gavin Webber, President.

Local Sustainability group open for new members Melton Sustainable Living Group was recently formed to raise community awareness about the actions that individuals and business can take to lower their personal carbon footprint and to build local sustainability in water, energy, waste, transport and food production. Last night (May 7th) the group held a community meeting at the Melton Community Hall and attracted more than 18 Melton Shire residents, who are keen to learn more about the simple actions that they could make to green up their lifestyle. Among the group were members of the Alternative Technology Association, people interested in community gardens and several people who are involved in Sustainability in their professional lives. Commenting after the meeting, Melton Sustainable Living Group President Gavin Webber said: “The evening was a big success. It was great to share with other local like minded people ideas we all have for making our lives, and the lives of our fam...

I came across this video on a fellow green bloggers website.  It is short, to the point, and has a big impact (well it did for me).  This is why I do what I do! Don’t forget that the next meeting is tomorrow at 2-4pm being held at Teresa & David’s house.  Contact me via  meltonsustainablelivinggroup@gmail.com for the address details if you don’t have them. Gavin

Don’t forget the MSLG Awareness meeting being held on the 7th May 2009. Please refer to the poster below for details. Click to enlarge. There will be two presentations, one by Gavin about his journey towards a sustainable lifestyle, and one from another group, who will hopefully talk about why and how they formed their group and what projects they have done. It should make for an interesting evening. How to see you, and any prospective members there. Don’t forget to try and put up a few flyers on community notice boards during the weekend. Thanks!